The present invention relates to a sealing member and a sealing structure, and more particularly relates to a sealing member that is provided between a cylinder head and a cylinder head cover of an engine for a vehicle and a sealing structure having the sealing member.
Conventionally, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-195096 discloses a sealing structure having this kind of sealing member. In the configuration, a groove is formed at a periphery of an opening of a cylinder head and a loop-like sealing member is fitted to the groove. With a cylinder head cover provided on the cylinder head, the sealing member is located between the cylinder head and the cylinder head cover so as to seal the space between the cylinder head and the cylinder head cover.
In this kind of engine for a vehicle, in many cases, a connecting portion of an oil passage and a cam angle detecting sensor are located between the cylinder head and the cylinder head cover. In this case, portions surrounding the connecting portion of the oil passage and the cam angle detecting sensor are required to have a high rigidity so as to precisely define the positions of the connecting portion of the oil passage and the cam angle detecting sensor. To improve the rigidity, for example, a plurality of bolts are screwed to a cam cap that is fixed to the cylinder head from the cylinder head cover so as to apply fastening force to the cylinder head cover. The bolts are inserted through a cylindrical portion that is formed in the cylinder head cover. Another seal is located between the cylinder head cover and the cam cap to ensure high sealing performance at the cylindrical portion where each bolt is inserted.
As described above, if different seals are located between the cylinder head and the cylinder head cover and between the cylinder head cover and the cam cap, the number of parts is increased and the assembling operation of the parts becomes complicated.
To cope with such problems, for example, a sub seal may be integrally formed with the main seal that is located between the cylinder head and the cylinder head cover. The sub seal is connected to the main seal with a connecting element that extends toward the inside of the main seal. That is, the sub seal is used to ensure the high sealing performance at the cylindrical portion for bolt insertion.
According to the above-described configuration, the connecting element between the main seal and the sub seal is easy to be deformed. Therefore, the connecting element is vibrated due to the vibration of the engine and deformed repeatedly. This may degrade the connecting element. Particularly, if the connecting element between the main seal and the sub seal is formed in a step, the connecting element is more likely to be deformed, and the problem is aggravated.
To prevent the vibration of the connecting element, the connecting element may be supported by a pin. Specifically, the pin is provided on the inner surface of the cylinder head cover. A hole is formed in the connecting element so as to receive the pin. The pin is fitted to the hole of the connecting element so as to suppress the deformation of the connecting element. However, in this configuration, the operation of fitting the pin to the hole is required. This increases the number of manufacturing steps. Further, the pin may be dropped off the hole due to the vibration of the engine. To prevent the dropping of the pin, a head of a mushroom shape is required to be formed at the distal end of the pin. This further makes the operation of fitting the pin to the hole more difficult. For forming the pin in the mushroom shape, the manufacturing steps of the seal material become complicated. To make the mold releasing of the pin easier, a complicated mold mechanism having a slide type is necessarily used for molding.